From a T-shirt design for a birthday ride, to front-runner in cycling-related leisure wear. Toon Claessens from The Vandal travelled a long way. A stage race full of coincidences and luck, but above all full of passion for the sport.
In 2012, Toon designed a shirt featuring the faces of cycling legends such as Eddy Merckx and Roger De Vlaeminck. He and his friends wore it while riding a segment of the Tour of Flanders together. In his spare time, he painted retro bikes with polka dots or covered them with newspaper from the pink Gazzetta dello Sport, though he didn’t immediately see a business model in it. But thanks to the combination of his love for cycling with his training in prepress technology and graphic design, as well as his work in a shop specializing in custom textile printing, there was more to it than just a hobby.
In 2013, Toon was still designing and printing T-shirts, in small batches and now under the name The Vandal. It was the era of pop-ups, concept stores, and markets for young designers. All of these were places where the T-shirts flew off the shelves. The bike shop Bike Project (then still called Fixerati) in Antwerp ordered a shipment, and Toon’s apartment began to fill up with boxes, with the nursery covered in T-shirts. During the day, Toon spent four-fifths of his time in the shop; late into the night, he was working for The Vandal.
And then Toon got a phone call. None other than world champion Johan Museeuw asked if he could have that T-shirt with his face on it, alongside those of all the other world champions. At first, Toon thought someone was playing a prank on him, and it certainly wasn’t the last time he had to pinch himself because he was suddenly talking to one of his heroes. Museeuw began regularly wearing The Vandal designs in public, and not long after, Nick Nuyens was on the line.
The former cyclist was starting a field and road team and was looking for a casual clothing partner. The Vandal wasn't big enough for that, but they could make the caps for Team Veranda Willems - Crelan. Not much later, Wout Van Aert and Tim Merlier were on the cross country podium almost every weekend with that cap on their heads. And when Van Aert finished third in his first participation in 2018 in an epic Strade Bianche he was also on stage with The Vandal cap in Sienna. That moment set the stage for further collaboration between The Vandal, Wout and his wife Sarah. And the world had seen it.
Whoever had seen it was AS Adventure. After speaking with their buyer in 2015, The Vandal created a private collection for the Belgian outdoor chain. In addition, since 2020, The Vandal has been an official partner of Belgian Cycling. In the shared webshop, fans of our national cycling team a beautiful collection based on the iconic cycling jerseys.
Meanwhile, The Vandal has an extensive webshop with two collections a year, the Belgian Cycling collection, custom designs and limited editions. In addition, the clothes are in 120 stores in Belgium, as well as in Australia, Japan, South Korea, Aruba, South Africa, the US and all over Europe. The collections include shirts, sweaters, jackets, joggings, shorts and accessories for men, women and children, for during and after cycling. Toon still designs everything himself, although of course The Vandal team has expanded considerably over the years.
In addition to our existing fruitful collaborations with the magazine Bahamontes, Belgian Cycling, and champions such as Lotte Kopecky, Wout van Aert, and Julian Alaphilippe, The Vandal aims to become an even bigger player in eco-friendly outdoor fashion. Toon dreams of having a store selling The Vandal products in every major capital city in the world, but also of one day becoming the title sponsor of a cycling team at the highest level. In the meantime, The Vandal remains committed to its extensive custom offerings, and continues to innovate and expand its collections.
To be continued for sure, the sprint has only just begun.
